I fisted my hand, demanding that the wind cut off all circulation as the Slime Dweller struggled wildly against my attack. But just as I was about to finish the job, a strong hand wrapped itself around my arm, yanking me to the side. I found myself being propelled through an open doorway and up a flight of wooden stairs. I had no choice but to follow my captor.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Are you INSANE?”
It was Lisabelle’s voice, and at first all I could do was smile wearily, relieved beyond measure that my friends had found me and it wasn’t a fresh attack.
“Is that a trick question?” I asked.
I felt Lisabelle throw up her hands in the dark stairwell. “I’ve been telling you for three semesters now: do not go anywhere without me. It’s always more trouble than it’s worth, and for some reason you just keep needing to prove me right.”
“How did you find me?” I panted.
“We went to Astra, because we wanted to talk before Tactical. When you weren’t there we came looking. Keller said you had told him you were going over by yourself, and knowing you as we do, we instantly realized you’d done something foolish.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, then demanded: “Why did you pull me out of there?”
But it was a stupid question. I felt like I had been pummeled all over with hammers. My legs were wobbling and aching and my head throbbed. I was pretty sure that if Lisabelle’s strong arm hadn’t been around my waist, holding me up, I would have fallen down.
“Because more were coming, or hadn’t you noticed?” she asked icily. “That’s what that noise was. Someone had opened an underground aqueduct, much like the one that runs through Astra, and more Slime Dwellers were on their way to pay you a visit. You didn’t have a chance. We had to pull you out of there. You’re welcome.”
“Despite Lisabelle taking up all the air space, I’m here too,” said Sip.
“Oh, I knew you were,” I said. “No way Lisabelle could have pulled this off on her own.”
Sip snickered.
As my eyes adjusted to the dim light I could see that we were moving up a narrow set of stairs. The ceiling was so low that our heads almost touched it. Sip was in front of Lisabelle and me, using light to show us the way. Lisabelle was on my right side, her sleeve rolled up to reveal her new tattoo. It sparkled black. I used my left hand to brace myself against the wall as we moved slowly upwards.
“Are we late for Tactical?” I asked a little breathlessly. Even climbing stairs was too much for me at the moment.
“That’s what you’re concerned about?” Lisabelle demanded, rolling her eyes. She gripped me tighter and we picked up our pace a little.
“We can’t miss it,” I said. “We get expelled if we miss one Tactical.”
“They’re forcing us to go outside the force field,” said Lisabelle. “Getting expelled might not be so bad at this point.”
Carefully the three of us made our way outside, but ground level wasn’t much of an improvement on the basement. The rain was still driving down and it was cold. The only change was that the air no longer felt so suffocating. I desperately sucked fresh air into my lungs.
The night was just beginning.
Tactical. Dark and close weather. Wet. Rain pouring down. The weather had turned even uglier while I was in the Long Building and there was no sign of it letting up any time soon.
“This is going to suck,” said Sip, staring around us. We were now standing at the Tactical starting point, but it was too wet for a bonfire.
“At least it isn’t snow,” Lough said, pulling his black rain jacket closer around himself.
“Yet,” said Lisabelle, folding her arms across her chest. Her face was barely visible under a large rain hat. On anyone else it would have been comical, but no one laughed at Lisabelle. “Snow’s coming, and once it does it will be even harder for us to keep Charlotte safe.”
Lisabelle was referring to the sneak tactics we had started to employ to avoid all the other students on campus who hated me, because of Mound. “Of course, Charlotte is making it pretty hard all by herself at this point,” Lisabelle added grimly.
Tactical that night was torture. Tactical was always held, rain or shine, in part because it was supposed to simulate real world fighting and you don’t get a chose your weather in war. But I always hated to leave my cosy fire in Astra for the sloppy, muddy hills and valleys in which we performed Tactical. I tried to tell myself that this was all for the sake of staying safe when we went outside the force field. It didn’t help much, but there was another incentive now, since the deans had told us over breakfast one morning that at the end of November we would have our Tactical Challenge. That meant that I had exactly one month to become competent enough to save myself.
That night, even more than usual, I just wanted to be in Astra. My whole body ached and my eyes were drooping from exhaustion. I had never been so afraid and I didn’t even know what had happened or what to be afraid of.
“Seriously, you shouldn’t have bothered reinforcing the force field last semester,” said Lisabelle, “if this is how they’re going to thank you.”
I hated to say it, but I was starting to feel like she was right.
“I thought the weather looked bad, but this is ridiculous,” said Sip. We were standing an inch deep in muck as the rain slammed down. It wasn’t just falling. Instead, it was like someone was pouring buckets onto everyone.
“This will be good practice for when we fight the demons,” Trafton said. He was covered in a black poncho, so that the only things visible were his beautiful blue eyes and a slick of damp blond hair.
“Like you’re going to fight,” said Lough.
Something hard hit me from behind and I tumbled forward. “’Scuse me,” said Camilla as she swished past us dressed in head to toe rain gear in an eye-smarting shade of pink, which complemented her green skin, sort of. I pushed myself to my feet as my friends held my arms on either side.
“Oh, look,” said Lisabelle. “She stole your wall hangings, Sip, and is now wearing them.”
“Listen up,” cried Zervos, looking at each of us in turn as he marched back and forth. “This has been entirely too easy for you up to this point, so we’re changing the goal of the practice. Now, instead of going after high value targets, we are playing sudden death. The first time one of your teammates is captured, your team is done.”
This was an entirely new rule for Tactical. Zervos was just changing the rules at his convenience. Anger boiled within me, but I was too cold and too tired to do anything about it. My fellow students must have felt the same way, because except for a bit of angry muttering, no one made any sound. I could see Zervos’s head turning from side to side, looking for opposition. When he didn’t find it he said, “Alright, find your team. Let the games begin!”
I felt tired from the start. Every movement in the night made me jump, and I was constantly worrying about Public’s Shadow and the Slime Dweller I had left battling in the caverns of the Long Building. One of them had tried to save me, I was sure of it, and it had probably lost its life in the bargain.
I didn’t have time now to wonder why he had done it.
“Come on,” said Lough quietly, tugging on my sleeve. “We have to go.” The sad truth was that our Public team hadn’t won once. We had played seven times and each time we had been eliminated first.
It was a far cry from last semester, when my team had won easily.
Dobrov was in his own little spacey world. Wherever it was, it didn’t involve protecting his teammates, even though it did sometimes involve capturing targets from other teams. Ulrik ran after any paranormal he saw, spraying pixie dust. All the dust missed. He had potential, but he hadn’t harnessed it yet. More experienced paranormals avoided him easily.
Lough tried to get me away, but we didn’t make it very far. As we started to move, we saw Camilla standing in front of us just outside the clearing. Her team was good this year. They had won three of the Tacticals, mostly be
cause she targeted my team every time.
Camilla was dressed all in blinding pink. Her jacket, hat, and even her rain boots basically shone in the rain. From under the brim of her hat I could still see her perfect makeup. Sip had accused her of spelling it on and I hadn’t believed her, but I kind of did now.
“Hi there,” she simpered.
“Not you again,” Lough groaned. “How do you do it every time?”
“I’m very good at everything,” said Camilla, batting her eyelashes.
“Perfect the art of silence and then get back to me,” Lough said.
Camilla made a face, squared her shoulders, and pointed her ring at us. I tried to move, but after my ordeal in the catacombs I didn’t make it very far.
As I turned to run I almost slammed into Ulla, a senior vampire who liked to sharpen his teeth on rocks.
“Ouch,” I muttered, stumbling backwards. My nose smarted from where it had crashed into his shoulder.
Ulla didn’t give me time to bring my hand up before he knocked me down. I fell hard onto my back, a splat of mud washing up around me. Pain radiated from the point where I had landed all the way to the ends of my limbs. The rain fell heavily on my face, making it hard for me to breathe through my nose. I started to panic; I am not brave. The darkness was closing in as Ulla sloshed over to me and grabbed me roughly on the upper arm. I tried to fight him, but his grip was like a vice.
My struggles were in vain as he hauled me up, so in the end I just walked miserably next to him. We hadn’t even made it out of the clearing, and behind me Camilla was cooing smuggly.
“This is PATHETIC,” Zervos cried, running over, waving his arms wildly. “How could you LET yourself be captured so easily? You didn’t even put up a FIGHT!” He skidded to a stop about two feet in front of Ulla, who still had a firm grip on my arm.
“We are skilled trackers,” said Ulla proudly, puffing out his chest. “We used skill and cunning.”
“Hogwash,” Lough muttered.
“And I’m a blond-haired ghost named Katie,” said Zervos. He rounded on me so fast I took a step back, but there was nowhere to go. Camilla was standing right behind me, salivating at the idea of my getting yelled at and her getting to watch.
“We did our best,” I said quietly.
“Your best is pathetic,” Zervos hissed. He was shaking with anger, as if we had personally insulted his mother. “No, it’s WORSE than pathetic. We have demons waiting at the gates. We have a missing Map that not even our very best hunter can find, and HERE you are, gallivanting with your FAT friend.”
Next to me, Lough coughed and looked away.
“That’s it,” I said, stepping forward and shaking out of Ulla’s hold. “You have no right to talk to me like that, let alone him.”
“I will talk to you how I please,” said Zervos nastily. “I do believe I have a mandate.”
“He is in charge,” said Dean Erikson, coming over to stand next to Ulla. The small woman was dwarfed by the vampires, but she was just as intimidating. I looked at Keller’s aunt. Behind me, Camilla hissed gleefully.
“Come with me,” she said, using one long finger to command me. I wanted to argue, but I didn’t dare. “You are wet and cold.”
She had a point.
“We shall talk where it is warm,” she continued.
I followed Dean Erikson off of the Tactical field, but not before Zervos called after me, “Next Tactical, if you’re the first one caught, AGAIN, you will not like the consequences.”
“I don’t already,” I muttered, as I followed the professor.
“What was that?” she asked me over her shoulder.
“Nothing,” I said.
I shrugged to Sip and Lisabelle, who were standing at the top of the hill watching us. They would be worried, but they still had a Tactical to finish. Keller was nowhere to be seen. A meeting with Professor Erikson couldn’t be so bad, could it?
It turned out that Professor Erikson was taking me to Aurum. The fallen angel dorm was easily the most beautiful on campus, all white and silver and shining light. Keller had mentioned that his aunt had a study in the dorm, but I had never been there. In general I avoided Dean Erikson at all costs, remembering her disapproval of my dating her nephew, but now she was taking me there and I didn’t have any choice but to go with her.
After the bitter cold, the darkness, and the wet weather, Aurum was a welcome change. The front hall was cozy and filled with light, almost burning away the memories of the catacombs. It was hard to be worried once I was surrounded by such beauty.
“This way,” the Dean said, leading me to the left. Her office was on the first floor, with a white door sporting a gold name tag that read, Dean Erikson. She opened the door with a touch of her hand; it was clearly spelled so that only she could open it.
The office was large, with bay windows that were currently covered by silver curtains, each with a delicate design of silver wings etched into the cloth. The furniture was all dark wood, with a plush carpet in front of a roaring fire. Her desk was massive, with a red-backed chair so high that when she sat in it her head only came up about halfway. The walls were lined with leatherbound books, many of the spines worn thin. It was something I always looked at, because sometimes in a professor’s office the books didn’t look like they were ever opened. But Dean Erikson valued knowledge, and lineage, above all else. I knew that already, and the books only confirmed it.
“Please sit,” she said, graciously indicating the chair opposite her own. Carefully I took off my wet things and set them on a hook, trying to ignore the puddle of water that was dripping onto the perfectly polished floor. Drip, drip, drip, crackle, crackle, crackle, and nothing else but silence, so that even my swallow sounded loud.
Suddenly I realized how alone we were. Everyone else on campus was at Tactical. It was just Professor Erikson and me alone in Aurum.
I sat down. Keller’s aunt had avoided me since my public kiss with her nephew, being by turns dismissive and nasty when she did see me. Now I was alone with her and she was smiling at me like I was the errand child of one of her oldest and dearest friends.
“Tea?” she asked, smiling.
I smiled, excited to hold something hot in my numb hands. “Yes, please.”
Carefully, she picked up a silver china tea pot and poured the brown liquid into beautiful silver teacups.
“Sugar?”
I nodded.
“Milk or lemon?”
“No, thank you,” I said.
When Dean Erikson had fixed her own tea she sat back in her chair, cradling the cup.
“Now,” she said, leaning forward. “Let’s discuss your future at Public.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I’m concerned that we got off on the wrong foot,” she said, looking at me almost kindly over the rim of her teacup. The fireplace continued to crackle merrily behind her.
I shrugged. We got off on the wrong planet, but I wasn’t about to argue with a dean, especially not my boyfriend’s aunt.
“I wanted you to see this,” she said, handing me a Tabble. I sighed inwardly. I already knew what it was going to say—something vicious about me.
The title made me flinch. “Running Loose on Campus. Finally Mad Man Steps Up: A Story of Public’s Gracious Warrior of Shining Light, the Shadow.” The article, written as usual by Mound, went on to detail how there was a marauder on campus and how that “mad man” was trying to kill me—for the good of all paranormals. The article stated that if this Mad Man got away with it, other paranormals should be ashamed for letting someone without a face carry out what should be an honor. Mound was encouraging more paranormals to come and kill me.
“He’s been doing this for a while,” I sighed.
Professor Erikson blinked several times. “It does not bother you?”
“Of course it bothers me,” I said, setting the Tabble down and picking up my teacup. “I just can’t do anything about it.”
“Ah, I see,” she said ser
enely. “Well, I wanted to see how you were faring. If Risper were here I do believe that task would have fallen to him, but unfortunately he is still tracking Elam. As you are my nephew’s girlfriend I thought it best if the task now fell to me.”
“I appreciate your concern,” I said, taking a sip of tea.
Professor Erikson smiled at me. Sitting forward, she said, “If there’s anything you need, anything at all, please just let me know. I mean it. We are here to be a resource to our students, especially the . . . unusual ones.”
“Thanks,” I said. When Professor Erikson continued to stare at me I shifted uncomfortably.
“I want you to be comfortable here at Public,” she continued. “Happy. It will be easier on all of us if you are able to focus on your studies and not . . . distractions.”
“You mean Keller?”
“My dear, any distraction is difficult, and you have more than most to confront.”
I folded my arms over my chest. I had to be careful. Professor Erikson was a dean. I already knew I didn’t want to be on her bad side, but what if she only had bad sides?
Before she could continue trying to convince me to dump my boyfriend, though, there was a knock at the door and Jenkins stuck his head in. The young, sandy-haired visiting professor smiled. “Sorry for interrupting,” he said, giving me a wink. “There’s news.”
Professor Erikson pushed herself out of her chair. “Charlotte, you may go,” she said. “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”
“Oh, definitely,” I said, wincing at how sarcastic I sounded. Before I could get myself in any more trouble I darted toward the door.
“Is there news of the Shadow?” I asked eagerly.
“Have a good night, Charlotte,” said Jenkins, ignoring my question. “Be sure to do the reading for Monday.”
I always did the reading for A History of Death, so telling him I would wasn’t hard. But once I was safely away from Dean Erikson’s office I sagged against the wall. As often happened, I wasn’t sure what she was playing at, because sometimes she was kind to me and sometimes she seemed to hate my guts. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, trying to gather my thoughts. I shouldn’t have let my guard down.
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